The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Bruno crime family, Scarfo crime family, Philadelphia Mafia or Philly Mob, is an Italian American criminal organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most active American Mafia families outside of the Five Families of New York. The family has been known to hold territory or influence in other nearby areas outside Philadelphia, including Atlantic City, South Jersey, Trenton, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Baltimore, and Newark.
Under Angelo Bruno (1910-1980), the family enjoyed its most peaceful and prosperous reign. He was murdered in 1980 and Nicky Scarfo took over. He involved the family in narcotics, which Bruno had refused to do. Scarfo's tenure saw the murder of over 30 of his own men. Eventually, he and his supporters were put in prison and Joseph Merlino took over. Merlino was put in prison in 2001, and Joseph Ligambi took over.
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Famous quotes containing the words philadelphia, crime and/or family:
“It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what does he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man’s parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.”
—Cleveland Amory (b. 1917)
“Each man’s private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly within himself, and not care what the world thinks. The mass of human beings, however, are not made that way; and many people have been saved from crime or sin by the simple dislike of doing things they would not like to confess ...”
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“For most women who are considering it, single motherhood is not their first choice, but it’s not their last one either. They would prefer a husband in their family, but they’d rather have a family without one than no family at all.”
—Anne Cassidy. “Every Child Should Have a Father But....,” McCall’s (March 1985)